Mount Hope Garden

NYC PARKS CUTS RIBBON ON $5 MILLION MAKEOVER OF MOUNT HOPE GARDEN

NYC PARKS CUTS RIBBON ON $5 MILLION MAKEOVER OF MOUNT HOPE GARDEN
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
No. 18
http://www.nyc.gov/parks

Tremont neighborhood park receives first major renovation in over 20 years

NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP, today joined Council Member Fernando Cabrera, Community Board 5 District Manager Ken Brown, students and staff from P.S. 279, students from Trabajamos Community Head Start and local residents to cut the ribbon on a $5.1 million reconstruction of Mount Hope Garden in the Bronx. The community celebration marked the first major renovation the park has received since NYC Parks acquired the site in 1996.

“For more than two decades, this neighborhood park has been underinvested and underserved – until now,” said Commissioner Silver. “Thanks to Mayor de Blasio and Council Member Cabrera, Mount Hope Garden has undergone a tremendous transformation that will benefit the Tremont community for generations to come. The added play amenities and landscape improvements, make this park fun for our young parkgoers and those young at heart.”

“I am excited to be part of this long awaited ribbon cutting of the Mount Hope Playground formerly dubbed the city’s ‘worst playground’,” said Council Member Cabrera. “The transformation of this park is truly amazing and I am happy to have played a role in its redevelopment.”

The revamped Mount Hope Garden features improved amenities, such as new playground equipment, a swing set with an ADA accessible seat, spray showers, new shaded seating areas. Additionally, the retaining walls around the perimeter of the park were reconstructed, and landscaping improvements were added.

Mayor Bill de Blasio allocated $4.1 million for the project and Council Member Cabrera chipped in another $1 million for a total of $5.1 million.

Mount Hope Garden is located in the Tremont section of the Bronx. The area was largely farmland until 1841, when the New York and Harlem Railroad opened a station that soon became the center of a village. In the 1850s, Postmaster Hiram Tarbox named the village Tremont, after the three major hills in the area (Fairmount, Mount Eden, and Mount Hope). Tremont comprises several smaller neighborhoods, including Claremont, Mount Eden, and Mount Hope. Mount Hope is centered on Tremont Avenue and abuts East Burnside Avenue. Burnside Avenue honors the Civil War (1861-1865) general, Ambrose E. Burnside (1824-1881). Burnside’s unique and extensive facial hair was the inspiration for the term “sideburns.”